


Walk a Thousand Miles

by lillypillylies



Category: Wire in the Blood
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 20:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8910490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillypillylies/pseuds/lillypillylies
Summary: Tony shows up at Alex's door. Pity he's not the only one.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mammothluv](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mammothluv/gifts).



> I always thought Alex's ex-husband Gabriel might have shown up at some point if the show had continued. So this is the one where he shows up. In my head, he's played by Sean Bean.

Tony Hill whistled idly to himself, plastic bag swinging from his hand as he walked down the street. The last of the day's light was fading from the sky as he stopped at a corner, waiting for a lorry to trundle past, and he took in a deep breath, for a moment just enjoying the cool evening air in his lungs before continuing on his way. He was in a good mood. The inquiry into Michael's death had been finalised today - two months had passed, police bureaucracy being what it was, but the process had been simple enough from his end. Simple, if not easy. He, like everyone else involved, had been glad to see the end of it.

Anyway, it was over now. If he still woke sometimes in the night, sick and reeling from the feel of a neck-tie tight in his fists... if he did, it was a small price to pay for his life. And other things.

But he was in a good mood tonight. The spectre of Michael's death was only a pale wraith lingering at the corners of his vision; maybe he'd banish it altogether one of these days. Till then, if the shadow touched him, he could still always turn and face the light. He could make that choice. He was alive, after all.

He was alive, and in a good mood, and on his way to Alex's. He didn't even have a bottle of something to offer, just himself, and even so he knew he'd be welcome - a simple assurance that meant the world. No question there was an extra spring in his step as he turned off the footpath, went through the gate and up to her doorstep to ring the bell.

"Tony, it's not really a good time," Alex said when she came to the door.

"Oh," he said. Well, so much for being welcome.

Alex's body language was anything but welcoming, in fact. This was impatient, irritated Alex blocking the door-frame with a great deal of tension in her stance. "Is it anything important?" she said.

"No." 

It wasn't important. No one was in danger or dying - not as far as he knew anyway - and those were the sort of important things they often dealt with. This was more 'pop round and see what you've got on for tea', and for no reason other than wanting to. 

It felt important to him of course but that was beside the point.

He was about to say something to that effect but that moment of hesitation, the slight delay between thinking and speaking, was when he noticed the voices that could be heard coming from inside. One of them was Ben's, the other was unfamiliar; an adult male voice.

The words about to come out of his mouth changed abruptly. "Oh, I'm sorry, you've got company. I'll just - I'll see you later." 

He turned and started back down the path. He heard the door close behind him and then, unexpectedly, Alex coming after him.

"No wait, hang on, you don't have to go, Tony. Really, it's fine."

The way she said it - it didn't sound fine. And she didn't look fine, she looked distracted, harried. She looked angry and upset.

"Alex?"

"He just showed up," she spat out.

"Who did?"

"Ben got to the door before I did, I couldn't send him packing. He did it on purpose, the bastard, after last time - it's why he didn't call first, I'd never have let him..."

"Oh, it's your ex-husband." 

Things suddenly made sense. Alex's distress, Alex sending him away. But why was the ex here now? He wanted to know for Alex's sake, and he had always tried to maintain a neutral opinion of the man, the better to provide support if and when she needed it, but he was suddenly nothing but resentful of this bloke who turned up and upset Alex and ruined what could have been - would have been - a nice evening.

"Ben's thrilled," Alex went on, "and I'm in there playing nice for his sake but I just want to strangle Gabe with my bare hands, Tony. I can't believe he just... You're lucky you didn't walk in on a murder scene."

"What does he want?"

"God knows. I've not had a chance to speak to him in private. He says he heard about mum - that's just an excuse. If he wanted to pay his respects he could have bloody called, or come to the funeral."

He touched her arm briefly and he watched some of the anger drain out of her. Some of it. 

"Breathe, Alex," he said.

"Don't tell me to breathe, I'm breathing just fine." She glared at him and his lips betrayed him with a slight twitch of humour, not because the situation was amusing but because Alex's temper was as reliable as it was prickly. 

After a moment her expression settled into something closer to chagrin as she rolled her eyes. It was quiet for a moment between them as they breathed together in the cool evening air.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked.

"Can I borrow a shovel?"

He nodded. "I'll bring two."

She smiled briefly before sobering again. "You can be here in a few days when Gabe's pissed back off where he came from and I'm dealing with a disappointed kid again."

"All right, I'll be here."

A genuine smile lit up her face at his reply, and this time it stuck, dispelling for a moment the ire and frustration brought about by her ex.

As had begun to happen of late, they stood unspeaking and smiling at each other dumbly until one of them - this time Alex - looked away.

"Tony Hill, I could bloody kiss you sometimes," she muttered half to herself.

"No complaints here." He watched the colour rise in her face. "Well, another time."

"There is something else you can do." She looked back at him then, and reached for his hand. "You can come inside."

She already had the front door open and was leading him in while his brain caught up with what was happening. "What, in there? Now?" Surely it wasn't a good time for - wait. "Oh, you want me to meet him?"

"Actually, I want him to meet you," she tossed back at him just before Ben, alerted by the sound of the door, came from the sitting room out into the hallway.

"Mum, look what - Tony! Hi, my dad's here, you can meet him. And look what he gave me. Mum, see?" Ben was proudly holding up a black leather jacket - approximately child-sized to Tony's inexperienced eyes.

His experience might have been lacking in the areas of both kids' clothing and leather jackets in general, but he was adept at noticing details. Such as the other jacket hanging on the coat hooks by the door that was much larger but otherwise a near copy of the one in Ben's hands.

The picture slowly forming in his mind of The Ex, informed so far only by the scant details Alex had dropped in conversation, suddenly gained new dimensions. He was a man who could pull off a leather jacket, for one thing. More significantly he was a man who would show up out of the blue and give his son an extravagant gift - one that would create a superficial sense of kinship, an attempt to compensate for the unformed parent-child bond.

It suggested a person who took the easy way out; who was concerned with appearances; who would try to manipulate a situation to his advantage. Charm over substance.

He tried to picture the Alex he knew so well involved in a relationship with the man in his mind. He didn't care for the image he created, but then, he reminded himself, neither did Alex - she did divorce him, after all.

While he was comforting himself with that thought, Alex was exclaiming over Ben's acquisition. "Oh, wow, isn't that something. Did you say -"

"Alex? Who was at the door? Oh." 

The Ex appeared. He was tall and good-looking with a slight northern accent. He regarded Tony, who regarded him back.

"Tony, do you like it?" Ben said, oblivious to the awkward atmosphere.

"That's a great jacket, Ben. All you need now is the motorcycle to go with it."

Ben looked star-eyed for a moment, then turned to his mother who immediately shook her head.

"No. No motorcycles. Ever."

"Right, my mistake, definitely cooler without a motorcycle," Tony said.

"But Mum -"

"Absolutely not."

"No, but when I'm grown-up -"

"You'll be too big to wear it, then," Tony pointed out.

"You're not helping," Alex said, fixing him with a look.

"No. Trying, though."

The stranger in the room cleared his throat.

Alex put an arm fondly around Ben's shoulders - the comforting gesture likely as much for herself as for her son - and finally looked over at her ex-husband. "Gabe. This is Tony Hill."

"Gabriel Simmons." He left the doorway and came into the now-crowded hall with his hand outstretched.

They shook hands, Tony smiling blandly. "Nice to meet you," he said, while beside him Alex focused all her attention on Ben who was still wholly preoccupied with examining every inch of the new jacket.

"Same to you, mate," Gabriel said. He was obvious about it as he glanced between the two of them. "Are you the boyfriend, then?"

Alex was equally obvious in not chiming in with an answer, leaving Tony to continue the polite facade barely veiling this very blatant pissing contest taking place in Alex's foyer.

"Haven't heard of me?" Tony said.

"Can't say I have."

"I've heard of you. You're the ex-husband. And I bet you've had a motorcycle."

This drew a snort of derision from Alex, who finally joined the conversation. "More like a scooter when I met him."

"Very practical, scooters. Excellent mileage." He turned to Alex and before he could speak she was rolling her eyes.

"No scooters, either. For any of you. Ever. Casualty doctors call motorcyclists organ donors on two wheels."

She spread the dour look round to cover Tony, her ex, and her son all at once and none of them chanced a protest.

Tony smiled. There, now Alex had won the pissing contest, which as far as he was concerned was only fair.

"Can Tony stay for dinner, Mum?" Ben said.

"Well..."

Gabe clapped a hand on Ben's shoulder. "Yeah, we were just thinking about making dinner. Tony, you're welcome to join us."

He felt Alex bristle beside him; the audacity of the man, making invitations in her home. He was so busy sharing her indignation he didn't even have time to figure out what his response should be before Alex gave Gabriel a pointed look. "Of course Tony's staying," she said.

"Great," Ben piped up, still innocently cheerful. "What should we have? Can we make roast chicken? Dad, I learned to make roast chicken, it's really nice. Isn't it, Tony?"

"Yeah, yeah Ben, it's wonderful."

"I don't know if we've got chicken, though, have we Mum?"

"No idea, go have a look in the freezer."

"I can do other things too, well, with help," Ben told his father as he headed for the kitchen. Gabriel, after a glance at Alex and Tony, followed.

"A family dinner with you and your ex-husband. Thanks for having me," Tony said once they were out of earshot.

"You think I'm that much of a masochist?" Alex said.

"I didn't know you were any degree of masochist."

She rolled her eyes at that comment, but then looked away. "Look, I'm sorry for dragging you into all this."

"I'm glad I'm here." Jokes aside, it was the simple truth. It gave him the chance to put a face to a name, and to be here for Alex, who for some reason wanted it that way.

"Speaking of masochists." Alex threw him a grin before heading towards the kitchen, calling out, "Ben, you know what? Your dad's going to take you out for tea, just the two of you, how does that sound? Anywhere you like."

"Can we get pizza? Dad?"

"Uh, sure, sure. Alex?"

"Go and comb your hair and put a jumper on," she told Ben, ushering him out of the room. He darted past Tony to the stairs and thundered up them.

"I thought we'd just fix something together," Gabriel said, facing off with Alex who turned back to him, her face suddenly lacking any of the warmth she showed Ben.

"Gabe, Ben wants to spend time with you. Take him out for a treat. I'm not up for entertaining tonight, you kind of sprung this on me, yeah?"

"What about..."

"Tony? We're just going to open a tin of soup and put our feet up, aren't we?" She looked back at him.

Tony stared back at her, then nodded. "Mm-hm, yep. Soup. Feet. Precisely."

Ben came clattering back down the stairs notably without a jumper. He held up his new jacket instead. "Can I wear this?"

"Course you can. Now, off you go, have a nice time. Not too late, Gabriel, he's got school in the morning."

And Gabriel, faced with an excited boy and his implacable mother, capitulated. 

Within a few minutes they were gone.

Alex breathed a heavy sigh as the sound of Gabriel's car leaving faded away, leaving her and Tony alone in a quiet house.

"Thank god for that," she muttered. She glanced over at Tony, who was watching her. "What?"

"Did you just use me to get rid of him?" he said.

"Sort of. That okay with you?"

"Long as I get my soup."

She smiled. "Put the telly on, I'll see what I can do."

"So why did you want me to meet him?" he said twenty minutes or so later. They were at this point both ensconced on the sofa with bowls of pea and ham soup. There was a plate of cheese on toast they were sharing on the coffee table between two mugs of tea. "Alex?" he prompted when she suddenly seemed particularly enthralled by the latest news item and unlikely to reply.

She spared him a glance before looking back at the television. "He's just always breezed in like this," she said eventually. "Just expecting we'll be here waiting for him. And I never have been, I haven't, but especially not now. I suppose I wanted him to see that. It's petty, I know." 

It took him a full minute to process that. 

"What, me? Especially not now, because of me?"

She regarded him evenly, eyebrows raised, munching a piece of toast. Giving him her 'stupid question, Tony' look.

He shifted in place, letting the notion settle over him. "I'm the boyfriend. Oh right, I'm the boyfriend. I see."

It had been Gabriel's first assumption. For good reason, apparently.

Tony was especially glad now not to have seen a reason to contradict him.

"Just now sinking in?" Alex said.

Tony ate a spoonful of soup. Nothing within him at this moment could be described as sinking. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"You got any other fellows you need me to chase away?" he said. Alex glared at him, or tried to. He shrugged. "I like to make myself useful."

She snorted

"Here I am being chivalrous..."

"You're being a bit of a smug prick actually."

" _Smug_ prick now, is it? That's a new one. You'll have to add it to the list."

"I will," she said, threatening him briefly with her spoon. "Course, you know what's weird? I still want to bloody kiss you."

"That's weird?"

She shrugged. She looked self-conscious, but hopeful. 

He recognised those feelings. She made him feel that way all the time.

"It's not weird, Alex. It's brilliant. And convenient, because yes I can be a prick, am a prick a lot of the time, and I wouldn't want to put you off, now or at any time in the future."

"Yeah yeah, all right, stop your yapping for a minute and maybe I will."

He fell silent, waiting. She didn't make him wait for long.

Alex kissed him, and he found himself hoping the Ex would do the typically irresponsible thing and keep Ben out long past his bedtime. Although even if he didn't - even if they walked in the door right this second - at least now Tony had an answer for him.

 _I am the bloody boyfriend._ He couldn't wait to tell him

"Stop thinking so much," Alex murmured. Her lips were gentle and soft against his and for once, miraculously, he stopped.


End file.
